Weight and Your Web Page

Did you know that objects on your Web page can be too heavy? Weight plays an important role in the balance of your entire design. Of course, I'm not talking about physical weight, but rather the perceived weight of an object based on its size and placement.

Obviously, images that are too small will be hard to see and ineffective in their role as complements to your text or theme. But images that are too large will overwhelm your site visitors and take away from the information that you present. Remember that images should never be so large that you have to scroll vertically or horizontally to see the entire picture. Most will be much more effective in a much smaller size.

In general, the size of your images should be large enough to see any details but small enough so that your eye can comprehend the subject or "point" without a lot of effort. If you want to emphasize a particular object, such as your logo or your business name, you can use white space to set it apart from other graphics and text rather than make it really big and filling the screen.

Overall, think about balance. Too much text is boring, too many large graphics are confusing and hard to understand. A good mix of these elements along with just the right amount of white space will give your page a feeling that everything was placed intentionally under a well thought out plan. Your visitors will enjoy browsing your site, and your business will be portrayed a one that takes time focus on customer or client needs.

There's no hard and fast rule to achieving this kind of balance. It's really a matter of experimenting with the design, browsing other sites to determine what works and what doesn't, and asking others to preview your page and offer their comments. Remember that most of your site visitors won't know a lot about the specific elements of your design - they'll only know whether your site is attractive, engaging, and easy-to-read.